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When we come to Thee, O Lord, we are overwhelmed with the number of Thy mercies. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee; they can only be reckoned up in order by Thee. And yet we pray that we may have a clear perception of, and a more adequate thankfulness for, and a more entire dependence upon, Thy loving heart and Thine innumerable mercies. Draw us, we beseech Thee, to Thyself by thoughts of Thee; and when there rise up in our consciences the sins that are more than the hairs of our heads, and we feel as if we durst not look up, may the thought of Thy greater mercies, more numerous still than these, strengthen and encourage us. What should we do if the measure of Thy forgiveness did not overlap and exist far beyond the measure of any man’s or of all men’s sin? We thank Thee that we can cast ourselves on Thee, and flee to Thee from ourselves; and we beseech Thee that Thy good Spirit, which Thou dost give to them that ask Thee, may indeed dwell in our hearts, and mould us by the power of thankfulness for Thy service. May it be true of us, too, that we delight to do Thy will, and that Thy law is within our hearts. We come to Thee empty-handed, sacrifice and offering Thou dost not require; Thou hast provided it. We come to Thee to receive, not to give; we come as those for whom the great offering has already been presented which makes all ours needless, except as thank-offerings. And we pray Thee to help us to render ourselves to Thee in entire surrender and devotion, as the token of our grateful acceptance of Thy greatest gift.

Vast numbers of men are pleased with the seemingly new idea that “dogma” is of no great importance … The consequences of this widespread dislike to “dogma” are very serious in the present day. Whether we like to allow it or not, it is an epidemic which is just now doing great harm, and specially among young people. It creates, fosters, and keeps up an immense amount of instability in religion. It produces what I must venture to call, if I may coin the phrase, a “jelly-fish” Christianity in the land: that is, a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or power. A jelly-fish, as every one knows who has been much by the sea-side, is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little, delicate, transparent umbrella. Yet the same jelly-fish, when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defence, or self-preservation. Alas! it is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of which the leading principle is,—“No dogma, no distinct tenets, no positive doctrine.”—We have hundreds of “jelly-fish” clergymen, who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have no definite opinions; they belong to no school or party: they are so afraid of “extreme views” that they have no views at all.—We have thousands of “jelly-fish” sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge, or a point, or a corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint.—We have legions of “jelly-fish” young men annually turned out from our Universities, armed with a few scraps of second-hand philosophy, who think it a mark of cleverness and intellect to have no decided opinions about anything in religion, and to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what is Christian truth … And last, and worst of all, we have myriads of jelly-fish worshippers,—respectable church-going people, who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology. They cannot discern things that differ, any more than colour-blind people can distinguish colours. They think everybody is right and nobody wrong, everything is true and nothing is false, all sermons are good and none are bad, every clergyman is sound and no clergyman unsound. They are “tossed to and fro, like children, by every wind of doctrine;” often carried away by any new excitement and sensational movement; ever ready for new things, because they have no firm grasp on the old; and utterly unable to “render a reason of the hope that is in them.” All this, and much more, of which I cannot now speak particularly, is the result of the unhappy dread of “dogma” which has been so strongly developed, and has laid such hold on many Churchmen, in these latter days.

Salvation is undoubtedly all of grace. It is offered freely in the Gospel to the chief of sinners, without money and without price … But all who accept this great salvation, must prove the reality of their faith by carrying the cross after Christ. They must not think to enter heaven without trouble, pain, suffering, and conflict on earth. They must be content to take up the cross of doctrine, and the cross of practice,—the cross of holding a faith which the world despises, and the cross of living a life which the world ridicules as too strict and righteous overmuch. They must be willing to crucify the flesh, to mortify the deeds of the body, to fight daily with the devil, to come out from the world, and to lose their lives, if needful, for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s.—These are hard sayings, but they admit of no evasion. The words of our Lord are plain and unmistakeable. If we will not carry the cross, we shall never wear the crown.